Allstate Testing Whether Games Can Actually Improve Driving

Video games have always been linked to providing gamers with above average hand-eye coordination, but could video games be linked to making better drivers? Allstate is looking to find out, and possibly give insurance discounts to those that do.

A new program, called InSight, will provide specialized games to 100,000 Allstate insured drivers in Pennsylvania aged from 50-75. While drivers in their 50’s and 60’s have the least amount of accidents, once they hit mid-60’s the rate begins to climb. Tom Warden, an assistant vice president at Allstate hopes that the games will provide brain fitness for these drivers, and “significant benefits … beyond dollars and cents.”

The games, developed by San Francisco’s own Posit Science, include many non-driving specific games such as Jewel Diver. In Jewel Diver you’re required to keep track of jewels underwater that are hidden by fish. The fish shuffle themselves around the screen, and the goal is to select the fishes that are hiding the treasures. As the game progresses, it gets increasingly difficult, adding more fish to the screen.

Allstate will decide next year whether or not to roll out the program in other states, and with any luck they’ll leave Grand Theft Auto IV out of their curriculum (might I suggest FlatOut?).